Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/113

101 ASSISTANCE OF THE MISSIONARIES. 101 works mentioned in it have not come clown to our time ; but it is the source to which most of our mo- dern Oriental bibliographers have resorted for all that concerns the first four centuries of Arab literature. The author, Mohammed, the son of Ishac, surnamed Aboulfarages, lived at Bagdad, and carried on the trade of a bookseller. In folio 227 verso of the new copy of the second volume, there is mention made of the fact alluded to by Golius, and it is evident that this is a copy of the very work so long sought in vain. The passage is as follows: — "In the year 377 (a.d. 987) I found living in the Christians' quarter, behind the church, a monk of Nadjran, who seven years before had been sent by the Djalolik (Catholic) to China, along with five other ecclesiastics, to set the affairs of Christianity there in order. I saw a man still young, and of an agreeable countenance, but he spoke little, and never opened his mouth but to answer the ques- tions put to him. I asked him for some information concerning his travels, and he answered that Chris- tianity had become extinct in China. " The Christians who had been in that country had perished in different ways, the church that had been built for them had been destroyed, and there remained not one single Christian in China. The monk, not having found any one whom he could aid by his mi- nistry, had returned more quickly than he went." The Arab writer does not express himself very clearly as to the route the ecclesiastics had followed ; but he says that the distance by sea differed according to the way they took, and that the navigation was very trou- blesome, as few persons could be found acquainted with those latitudes. At the time when the monk